(Bloomberg) -- The Dutch government is seeking to reduce the number of annual flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport by 4.4% from next November after residents complained about noise, clipping capacity at one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs.
Flight movements will be capped at no more than 478,000 compared with 500,000 permitted until the measure kicks in, the government said in a statement on Friday. The step will help reduce noise levels around the airport by 15%, it said.
“I understand that some residents had hoped that the noise around Schiphol would be further reduced,” Infrastructure Minister Barry Madlener said in a statement on Friday. “These are drastic measures for the sector. I am convinced that we have achieved a good balance with this decision.”
The Dutch state, the airport’s main shareholder, has run into obstacles with its foray to shrink the hub’s capacity. The previous cabinet was forced to abandon plans to cut flights to a maximum of 460,000 per year after push back from the US and the European Union.
The new cabinet floated a smaller shrinkage plan in September, with Madlener proposing between 475,000 and 485,000 flights per year.
New Aircraft
On Friday, the government said that cutting flights below the bandwidth would “be too great a burden for the sector.” The total noise-reduction target of 20% at the airport still stands, and the cabinet wants to make a decision on the remainder within its term, it said.
Airlines have previously urged the government to consider the impact of a capacity cut on their operations, as well as the transfer hub’s connectivity and the risk of retaliation from other countries.
KLM NV, the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, has criticized the airport’s model used to calculate its capacity levels. The contribution from new aircraft are “barely considered, and the noise reduction that can be achieved from them is almost entirely ignored,” KLM Chief Executive Officer Marjan Rintel said in a letter on Thursday.
The airline has previously outlined plans to invest €7 billion in renewing its fleet over the next few years with aircraft that are quieter and less polluting.
KLM called the Dutch cabinet’s decision “incomprehensible” on Friday. “Limiting the number of flights also entails a major risk of retaliatory measures from other countries, which will affect not only the aviation industry but also other Dutch companies,” the carrier said in a statement.
Madlener confirmed that punitive measures from other governments were possible. Though the planned cuts are “better than what was originally feared,” he told Bloomberg.
The Netherlands backed down last year on a plan to implement an experimental regulation, which would have cut its capacity to as little as 460,000 flights. The US government had threatened to retaliate over JetBlue Airways Corp. losing access to Schiphol as a result of the move.
Friday’s decision by the government will require approval from the European Commission. The European Union’s executive arm will test whether the decision followed the so-called balanced approach procedure, a process that outlines best practices for implementing airport capacity restrictions for purposes of noise control.
--With assistance from Katharina Rosskopf.
(Updates with minister’s comment and KLM’s reaction)
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